630 – Emperor Heraclius returns the True Cross, one of the holiest Christian relics, to Jerusalem.
1556 – In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake.
1788 – A fire in New Orleans leaves most of the town in ruins.
1800 – With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
1857 – Alice Henry, Australian journalist and activist (d. 1943) was born.
1871 – Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.
1904 – Forrest Mars, Sr., American candy maker, created M&M’s and Mars bar (d. 1999) was born.
1906 – John D. Rockefeller III, American philanthropist (d. 1978) was birthed.
1918 – World War I: The first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, begins.
1925 – The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee.
1928 – Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.
1933 – Construction of Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed.
1937 – Ponce Massacre: Nineteen people in Ponce, Puerto Rico, are gunned down by a police squad acting under orders of US-appointed Governor, Blanton C. Winship.
1943 – Wehrmacht officer Rudolf von Gersdorff plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler by using a suicide bomb, but the plan falls through. Von Gersdorff is able to defuse the bomb in time and avoid suspicion.
1945 – World War II: Operation Carthage: Royal Air Force planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also hit a school and 125 civilians are killed.
1946 – The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in the American football since 1933.
1949 – Eddie Money, American singer-songwriter and guitarist was born.
1950 – Roger Hodgson, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player (Supertramp) was born.
1952 – Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
1960 – Apartheid in South Africa: Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
1963 – Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, closes.
1965 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1968 – Andrew Copeland, American singer and guitarist (Sister Hazel) was born.
1980 – US President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
1980 – Dallas aired its “A House Divided” episode, which led to eight months of international intrigue regarding Who shot J.R.?
1989 – Sports Illustrated reports allegations tying baseball player Pete Rose to baseball gambling.
1997 – Wilbert Awdry, English cleric and author, created Thomas the Tank Engine (b. 1911) died.
2000 – Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel.
2006 – The social media site Twitter is founded.
2009 – Four police officers are shot and killed and a fifth is wounded in two shootings at Oakland, California.
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